Life and pensions provider Aegon has reported an 18 per cent dip in underlying fourth quarter earnings after booking £7 million in costs launching a new self-serve platform.

The Dutch insurer, which has its UK headquarters in Edinburgh, said its UK pensions division - which includes the distribution division Origen - booked a £9 million pre-tax loss for the quarter, including £7 million for new platform investment and a one-off charge of £2 million.

Earnings from the UK pensions division for the year were down 92 per cent to £2 million.

Aegon said full year earnings for the 12 months to 31 December 2013 were down six per cent to £84 million.

Aegon said it will launch the self-service platform in the second half of 2014, which will allow clients to direct their own investments.

New life sales were down 28 per cent year-on-year to £179 million, though Aegon said this was a return to more normal levels after exceptionally high sales last year, which had been just before the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) deadline.

“Our solutions are being well received with sales for the year up 13 per cent on the previous year.

“More importantly we have managed to do this while continuing to invest in the transformation of the business from a traditional product provider to a digital platform business.

“In the last quarter we made strides in this transformation, bringing both servicing and development capabilities of our multi award winning platform, Aegon Retirement Choices, in-house to Edinburgh and completing a recruitment drive for 200 new platform roles.

“This year we will launch a technology based solution for the non-advised market, which will then be offered to our adviser partners so they can provide a solution that best meets their customer’s needs while also fitting with their post RDR business model.

“Aegon’s ambition is to get the UK ready for retirement and we believe we can help to cover the pensions gap by offering customers simple, rewarding and reassuring digital solutions that will help them towards the retirement they want.”